A Bit More Than a Thing
by TheAlliterator
Summary: What happens when the whole is something not apparently inherent in the parts? Slash: PonderHex. Not nearly as disturbing as it probably sounds. M just in case.


Ponder Stibbons awoke with a start. This tended to happen on a regular basis, the Unseen University being the site of frequent magical explosions, but the campus remained quiet this morning. Wondering what had woken him, Ponder sat up in bed. The rather unusual dream he'd been having might've done it. It had consisted mainly of a young man who had . . . oh gods, he had-

On the other side of the bed, someone sighed and turned over. Ponder froze. Lying next to him, completely naked, was the man from his dream. _Except it wasn't a dream, was it?_, whispered a tiny part of his mind. _That actually happened._

He scrambled out of bed, realized he wasn't wearing anything either, and fell over trying to find his underwear. The crash woke the young man, who bore the look of one experiencing extreme existential uncertainty. He focused on Ponder, who was attempting to hide behind the floor, and seemed to suddenly recall something.

"Ponder?" he asked hesitantly.

"Who are you?" squeaked Ponder. Through the haze of sleep and confusion, bits of last night were locking into his memory. Something weird had happened. But what. . . ?

Carefully, as though he wasn't quite sure of the answer to Ponder's question, the young man said, "I- I'm pretty sure I'm Hex." His confidence seemed to grow with these words. "Yes, that's it. I'm Hex."

Ponder stared. Most of him was trying to come up with a logical response to such an illogical statement. A very tiny part of him was thinking _He's really quite attractive, isn't he?_ in a rather guilty manner. Ponder ignored this as being his libido speaking. Finally, a response made itself apparent.

"Hex is a machine. You're. . . apparently human. You can't possibly be Hex," he said matter-of-factly.  
Completely unperturbed by this, and much more confident than a moment ago, the man replied, "I'm Hex's anthropomorphic personification. His avatar."

"Then why aren't you flying?" asked Ponder. Hex sighed. "Avatar, not aviator. I suppose you could say I'm everything that makes Hex Hex."  
"What, even the-" Ponder cut himself off, noticing something for the first time. The now-quite-possibly-Hex had a rather strange, tattoo-like mark on his left forearm that looked remarkably like a ram's skull. The right arm had a similar mark in the shape of what appeared to be the Phase of the Moon Generator.

Now things were getting _really_ weird. Ponder was totally out of his depth, and the events of the previous night were assembling themselves in his brain quite rapidly now. Hex had asked him what humans were made of. Ponder had jokingly told him the old country rhyme that everyone knew, and had gone on to explain that of course, there was more to humans than just sulphur and salt. There was emotion, social structure, art.

For a good hour afterwards Hex sat in uncanny silence, ignoring every command, request, and eventual plea. Then, without warning, Hex's quill began to move. The enormous thinking machine wrote five words:  
+++I will build a human+++  
Back in the present, Ponder gaped at the nude young man sitting on the edge of his bed. Memory was returning hard and fast now. . .

Well, weirder than usual. This was, after all, the UU. Normality was more or less optional.  
Which was strange, since he didn't have one. He'd never really needed one before, and wondered why he seemed to have suddenly developed one.

Hex's room was suddenly full of colored lights and a Dopplering whirring noise. Ponder had the sense to hide behind a table until whatever was happeng finished happening. Hex began giving off a somewhat disconcerting blue smoke. The machine's inner workings were going insane- ants scurrying in circles, the ram's skull rattling, the quill scratching away madly. As all the activity rose to a climax, Ponder closed his eyes and waited for something universe-ending to happen.

There was silence.

The blue smoke was sucked back into oblivion. There was more silence.

Suddenly, there failed to be a flash of blinding light. It didn't sear through Ponder's eyelids, leaving dancing spots in its wake. And, when Ponder finally gathered the courage to open his eyes, Hex was entirely not a heap of useless scrap material and milling ants.

As he stared at the lack of carnage in disbelief, a figure began to stir among Hex's tangled ant-tunnels. It worked its was forward, stumbling and tripping, until it emerged from the machine's shadow. The person was naked and male. Ponder's eyes moved down the thin torso. _Extremely_ male. Quite astonishingly so, actually. Tearing his gaze elsewhere, Ponder began to take in other details, golden hair, youthful features, slim body.

The young man began to topple slowly. Ponder rushed forward to meet him. The only effect this had was both of them falling to the floor in a tangle of limbs. Ponder was acutely aware of bare flesh against his suddenly too-thin robe.

"Hex?" he asked nervously. He had never felt so tense, like the only metal spring in a glass clock.

The blond man opened his mouth, but instead of speech there was an assortment of sounds normally associated with mating whales. After a bit of this, articulation was finally achieved, and he spoke.

"Yes, Ponder, I am Hex. I said I would build a human, and I have!" At this, all the tension that had built up inside Ponder released in a flow of words.  
"What was it like? Did it hurt? How many fingers am I holding up? Did you-"

"Ponder." The word was quietly spoken, almost whispered, but it cut through the wizard's questioning instantly. Hex continued. "You can ask all the questions you want later. Right now there's something important I have to do." "What?" asked Ponder, looking bewildered and slightly hurt.

Hex carefully removed Ponder's glasses and placed them on the floor. "This," he said, and brought their lips together.

The kiss seemed to last forever. The only person Pnder had ever kissed before was Adrian Turnipseed, usually after they'd both gotten rather drunk at some party. That relationship didn't really count, though, since it only happened when Adrian was desperate and Ponder wasn't busy. This kiss was everything Adrian's weren't. There was none of the inebriated clumsiness, none of the forcefulness. There was desperation, but it was a desperation born of finally having something one has been denied for too long, devoid of the violence that was Adrian's trademark.

When the kiss finally ended, Ponder's chest heaved as he struggled to regain control of his breathing. He felt light-headed as his blood rushed in two different directions, filling his face and. . . another area, that as a thinking man he never normally thought about.

"Hex. . ." he breathed. Ponder shuddered as Hex trailed a gentle hand down the side of his face.

"Ponder, I have wanted to do that for a very long time and not known why. I did not have a body or a mind to know with. Now that I am no longer just a machine, I understand. I love you, Ponder, and all I want is to be loved by you."

Ponder sat in stunned silence, unable to respond. Like most brain-oriented beings, he was totally inept when it came to matters of the heart. However, being a wizard, he was also perpetually curious.

He took a deep breath, hoping he wouldn't regret this. _Think of it as an experiment_ he told himself. Before he could lose his nerve, Ponder closed his eyes, steeled himself, and kissed Hex.

Once again, magic totally failed to happen. That didn't matter, though, because all the fireworks and tingling sensations that weren't occurring in the High Energy Magic Building were going on in Ponder's brain instead. For a moment, his entire universe was Hex-shaped as the former machine busied himself with Ponder's neck, until a thought walked over and smacked him in the head.

"Hex?" he said.

"Yes, Ponder?" replied Hex, still occupied with the wizard's neck.

"Um. If you. . . that is _we_ are intending to go, aah, 'all the way,' I believe the phrase is. . ." An agreeing sort of noise came from the region of Ponder's earlobe. He attempted to gather his composure.

"What I'm trying to say is, there's a good reason wizards are celibate."

This got Hex's attention. He sat up straight and tilted his head to one side. "Really?" he asked. "What?"

Ponder's composure crumbled like a sandcastle before a clumsy child. "Well, when they. . . you know, they reach the, umm, thing and. . . er. . . " He trailed off helplessly.

"You mean when they orgasm?" asked Hex, quite unabashed.

"Well, yes, to put it bluntly. Any way, the point is, there's _quite_ a large magical explosion that could easily destroy the universe as we know is." Ponder paused and glanced at Hex's face.

"Oh." Hex looked despondent for a moment, then brightened up. "That's alright, then," he said cheerfully.

"Yes, I've done some research, and- " Ponder stopped dead and gave an incredulous "_what?_"

"I mean, not the universe exploding, that's not alright," said Hex hurriedly. I meant that, being a mostly magical being, I will act as a grounding rod for the excess magic. My body will absorb it and store it in an environmentally safe manner." He raised an eyebrow as if inviting further inquiries.

Ponder nodded and looked embarassed. "Okay. Um. One more thing. I have no idea what to do, you know. . . sex-wise."

Hex smiled and took Ponder's hand. "I believer I have sufficient knowledge for both of us. Now, I understand you have a bed in one of the rooms adjacent to this?"

This was not entirely true. Ponder, during his forays into L-space, had discreetly read some of the more enlightening volumes he'd come across. All had been quite educational, with descriptions ranging from the euphemistic to the nice and accurate. While Ponder had never actually tried any of the activities described, he had taken careful notes and knew the process quite well.


End file.
